Highlights • Allegheny Health Network

For women and babies: A maternity ward nearby that truly delivers

For decades, western Pennsylvania hospitals had been closing maternity wards and obstetrics units, creating higher costs for obstetrics care in the region and greatly inconveniencing expecting women and their families. Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and Highmark Health saw a regional problem, and set out to fix it by opening a new maternity ward at Jefferson Hospital, the first in Pennsylvania in 30 years.

The result of that insight: AHN hospitals delivered 6,500 births in 2015, an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2012. And much of that increase is attributable to the new Women and Infants Center at Jefferson Hospital that opened in late 2014.

Jefferson had hoped for 600 deliveries in the maternity center’s first year of operation, but the demand for close-to-home obstetrics care in its service area is so great that 777 babies were delivered at the Center in 2015.

"The unit is lovely, the location great," said Deborah Linhart, AHN’s vice president for women's health initiatives. "But it is the quality of care and the respected physicians and staff that make the difference."

"We're almost 30 percent over our expected volume, and are already looking at expanding" the Jefferson labor and delivery unit, explained Deborah. In addition to the new Jefferson center, AHN offers maternity and obstetrics services at West Penn Hospital, Forbes Hospital and Saint Vincent Hospital.

Also in 2015, AHN partnered with the Alexis Joy Foundation to advance care for postpartum depression; opened a beautiful, larger postpartum unit and family waiting-room at West Penn; expanded the network’s "Health for Her" education series; started a midwife program; and added new breast care services to AHN’s Peters Township Health + Wellness Pavilion.

With more than 110 OB-GYN specialists and more than 50 office sites throughout western Pennsylvania, AHN’s team of specialists offer neighborhood access to some of the most sophisticated women’s health services in the country.

"Women in our community are smart," Deborah said. "They want services that are geared toward them—and that focus on their comfort, convenience and specialized needs." AHN listened and is getting health care right for women in every walk of life, including childbirth.